


The Name

by tygger



Category: Castle Rock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe- No Supernatural, Dubious Consent, Light BDSM, May/December Relationship, Multi, Sex Toys, The Cage is too, The Devil is just a Metaphor, The Kid is Henry Deaver
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:40:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24774763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tygger/pseuds/tygger
Summary: In this reality The Kid is Henry Deaver, who tries to kill his father near the Castle Lake. Years later this leads him into long-lasting unhealthy relationship with Dale Lacy
Relationships: Ruth Deaver/Alan Pangborn, The Kid | Shawshank Prisoner/Dale Lacy, The Kid | Shawshank Prisoner/Dennis Zalewski, The Kid | Shawshank Prisoner/Jackie Torrance
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Crappy self-translation from Russian. Author is non-native speaker, so beware of weird stuff...

Lacy sat on a chair, undid the tie and took it off, then loosened one button on his shirt. He felt like drinking a glass of wine and wanted to send the Kid to the cellar to get a bottle, but remembered about tachycardia in time. Dale sighed heavily: he could not combine these two pleasures – alcohol and sex – not anymore. Another sign of impending old age.

However, when the warden of Shawshank prison looked at the Kid standing in front of him, all sorts of gloomy thoughts left him. The sight of this tall slender young man gave him strength and desire to live on, one might even say, made him happy. The Kid was his joy.

“You can start,” Dale said condescendingly, masterfully hiding his impatience.

The boy looked into his eyes like a loyal dog, and then he began to unbutton his plaid shirt. The shirt was faded and worn out. A relatively new white T-shirt was under the shirt, which the Kid awkwardly pulled over his head. Lacy sighed noisily. He had lit the fireplace in the living room as soon as they arrived to the cabin, but it was still quite cool in the bedroom – the boy’s skin immediately got goosebumps, his little pink nipples hardened and stuck out like bullets.

Having got rid of a T-shirt, the Kid unzipped his jeans. Baggy trousers slipped down his thin legs, and the boy stepped over them, remaining in the boxers. He hesitated, running his fingers under the hem of his underpants – nervously licking his lips, quickly looked at Lacey. Warden raised an eyebrow in surprise.

\- Any problems?

“No, Mr. Lacy,” the Kid whispered and hastily pulled off the boxers.

Dale sighed again. The boy appeared before him naked – the perfect imperfection of all existing. Tall, stooped, with long, sinewy arms and legs. Dale once again wanted to draw him. Lacy´s gaze slid down protruding ribs and flat stomach, the dark path of hair from the navel to the pubis. The Kid's dick was already hard.

Noticing this, Dale could not help smiling, and the boy's pale cheekbones turned pink with shame.

“Turn around,” Lacy ordered, and the Kid immediately obeyed.

The warden's gaze slid down his back and lingered on his buttocks. On the left was a small round birthmark. Lacey did not see it for the first time, and even kissed it more than once.  
“I love it when you're obedient,” Dale muttered, wondering if anyone else had seen the mark. - Lie down on the bed. You know what you have to do.”

Blushing stronger, the boy took a step to the dresser and pulled out a tube of lube and a red silicone vibrator from the drawer. Glancing sideways at Lacy, the Kid turned his back to the bed and lay on it so that his legs hung from the edge of the mattress.

The boy squeezed the gel into his palm and began to stroke his cock, slowly at first, then faster and faster. His breathing was lost, and his eyes closed with pleasure. Carried away, he forgot about the viewer, and therefore startled, when Lacy ordered him to caress himself in a different place.

The boy reluctantly changed his hand – he began to masturbate with his left, and put his right hand under his raised hips. Slicked fingers found the entrance, carefully walked around a tight hole.

“Spread your legs wider, I can't see"

The Kid complied. Taking a deep breath, he pushed his middle finger into the anus. For a minute, he moved it back and forth, trying to get into the rhythm with his left hand stroking his cock, until Dale told him to hurry. The Kid added a second finger, biting his lip and grimacing with discomfort.

By then, Lacy had already unbuttoned his fly, released his stiff member from his underpants and began to stroke it. Dale wound up quickly, with a half-turn, so he tried not to be too zealous, hoping to endure the end of the show.

“Insert the toy”.

The Kid immediately reached for a tube of lube, but Dale angrily called out to him.

\- No! You have enough of it.

“It will hurt,” the boy whispered.

“Of course,” Lacy almost burst out. In fact, he was quite sadistic, but he always suppressed this urge, although he suspected that without it he would never be able to work in prison for so many years. At the same time, everyone knew him as the most benevolent warden of Shawshank, who believes in the rehabilitation of prisoners. Even the Kid who was more in touch with Lacy's dark side than the others, could hardly call him cruel.

Raising himself on his elbows, the boy fixed a pleading look at Dale, the Kid's eyes began to fill with tears – and Lacy yielded.

\- Okay. Just a little.

The Kid let out a sigh of relief and lay back on the sheets. He carefully coated the vibrator with lube and, raising his hips again, raised it to the anus.

Dale watched him, not moving nor blinking.

The Kid began slowly insert the toy, and, despite the abundance of lubricant, this was not easy for him. The boy shuddered and hissed through gritted teeth. Hearing a groan of pain, Lacey nearly came in his fist.

\- Do not hold your breath. Relax.

Dale remembered that he had said the same words to the Kid on the night when he had deprived him of innocence. The words helped once again: the boy finally managed to fit vibrator almost the entire length, after that he stilled and took a deep breath.

“Turn it on,” ordered Lacy.

The Kid turned the wheel at the base of the vibrator – apparently to a full power, because he gasped and arched. His cock, softened during the insertion of the toy, in a moment was completely hard again. The Kid reached out for his cock, but Dale yanked him, fearing that the boy would finish ahead of time. The Kid groaned disappointingly, crawling on the sheets. The vibrator half slipped out of his anus, but the Kid immediately pushed it back, fearing Lacy's wrath.

For several long, painful minutes (painful and sweet for both of them), the head of the prison watched the boy wriggle on the bed. Dale admired the Kid - the whiteness of his skin, the flexibility of his body - admired the way the artist admires the perfect creation of nature, hoping to reproduce it on canvas. He knew every line, every turn so well, but every time he rejoiced in the increasingly familiar beauty.

Caressing his eyes with the clearly distinguishable sorting of ribs, the strict outlines of chest and the entire torso, fashioned without excesses and flaws, long arms and legs, Lacy was simultaneously admired and horrified. What accuracy of the plan is expressed in this perfect young body! However, this creature endowed with almost god-like beauty is so vicious inside that it destroyed not only its own soul, but also lead to the path of sin Dale Lacy himself.

Is he human or a creature of darkness? Dale was more and more inclined to the second. The demon came to this world to introduce into the temptation of the righteous, taking the noblest appearance.  
The devil is cunning, Lacy thought, tirelessly working his hand, faster and faster. The devil is cunning, but, really, he should not have taken such a look. In this world, something bad happens to those who have such fragility and beauty.

As if in confirmation of his thoughts, the head of the prison rose abruptly, quickly went to the bed ... The Kid froze, hearing the steps. Lacy, standing at the edge of the bed, between the boy’s legs apart, hung menacingly over him. Dale's face was solemnly gloomy, as if he had personally prepared to execute the sentence imposed on one of the prisoners in Shawshank.

The Kid knew that Lacy saw him that way - a prisoner, his captive, and knew what punishment awaited him. The boy shuddered when Dale pulled a vibrator out of him, and could not help screaming when the warden abruptly entered him and began to move, quickly and rudely. The execution has begun. The Kid bit his own hand so as not to scream, and Lacy continued to punish him - with his cock.

Feeling that he was approaching his orgasm, Dale thought about the estimate cost for the repair of the wing of the prison, which had suffered from the fire, about the number of prisoners that they would place there, if there were enough money, and everything worked out. He switched to long, slow movements. The boy’s ass was hot and tight. The Kid felt like hot silk around his cock. Continuing to moan and whimper, at some point the boy began to throw up his hips to meet Lacy. The Kid began to increase pace, accelerate. Their hips more and more spanked each other, the erect member of the boy bounced from these frictions, dropping drops of pre-come on his stomach.

Dale barely stopped the boy, ordering him to roll over and stand on his hands and knees. When the Kid obeyed, Lacy climbed onto the bed behind him and inflicted several weighty slaps on the boy's buttocks - he liked to watch the delicate skin turn pink under the blows. Then Dale put his hands on the reddened hemispheres, widely spread them apart to admire the hole – wet from the lube and reddened from friction. Spitting on it, he again pushed in, entered as deep as his balls allowed - the Kid howled, but a minute later he began to groan and wave his hips again. When Lacy realized that this time he could not postpone his orgasm, he said, panting:

“I want you to cum. Right now! ”

The Kid let out a long moan, the muscles of his anus contracted in a spasm repeatedly, tightly squeezing Dale's cock, and this was the last straw. They came almost simultaneously: the boy ejaculated on the sheets, and Lacy - inside the young man's body.

After a long time they lay nearby, exhausted. Feeling that his heart had calmed down a bit and his breathing had recovered, Dale picked up a Marlboro pack from his nightstand, pulled out a cigarette and struck a lighter. With a cigarette, he laid his other hand on the boy’s shoulder.

\- Want to smoke?

This time the Kid refused, which did not surprise Lacy. The boy sometimes smoked, but rarely and reluctantly.

\- Can I take a shower?

\- Go on. Just take off the sheets first and throw them in the wash.

Dale got up with a groan, freeing the bed, put on his terry dressing gown and settled back in his chair. - Clean bedding is in the dresser, the second drawer on top.

“I know,” answered the Kid.

Getting out of bed, he set to work. Lacy wondered if he was exploiting him too much ... But, in the end, he hired the Kid precisely for this - to keep order in the lake house, to be a hunting companion, to pose when Dale wanted to draw. Lacy was getting older, he really needed an assistant, and the Kid, despite the pallor and thinness, was a strong, healthy young man. He always received the promised payment for his services – for everything except fucking. Dale Lacy never bought sex in his life, and the Kid was no exception.

Puffing out a cigarette and lazily watching the boy make a bed, looking at his slim figure again, the warden thought again that he had been incredibly lucky then in the forest, more than ten years ago - to see what he should not have seen. To witness a boy killing his father in cold blood, luring him into a trap ... From the very day that Lacy decided to remain silent, the pastor's son, in fact, turned out to be his hostage.

“Hang the laundry in the yard when the machine finishes washing. It must dry before we leave.

“Yes, Mr. Lacy ... The bed is ready.”

\- Good. Now you can go to the shower.

When the Kid´s frame disappeared behind the door, Dale whispered his name, which he never uttered aloud:

"Henry."


	2. Chapter 2

He did not touch the Kid until he came of age. Dale Lacy was a sinner, but not of that kind. Children never attracted him in a sexual sense, and in general, he was indifferent to them. Perhaps Dale could become a good father, but God did not gave him children. He did not grieve much about it, unlike his wife.

As for homosexuality, Lacy managed to fight it – both in the prison entrusted to him, and in his own mind. There were still few cases of sodomy in Shawshank — but it certainly did not flourish there. In the same way, in Dale’s life: all relations with men were few, short-lived and ended long before he married Martha and returned to Castle Rock. Lacy considered them long atoned sins of youth.

How did all this come back? When this little demon did poisoned his mind?

Dale had no idea but he knew for sure when the Rev. Matthew Deaver began his journey to certain death.

The pastor decided his fate many years ago by proposing to a girl named Ruth. At first glance, she was a modest dreamer. Growing up in a very pious family, however, Ruth was much more willing to read Scandinavian myths than the Bible, and yawned furtively during the sermons. However, the young pastor, who was deep in love, did not notice this. As his friend, Dale might have told him that Ruth was the wrong choice, but he chose not to interfere.

Therefore, Matthew and Ruth were married, and lived together for several happy years. Like Dale and Martha, they tried for a long time to conceive a child, and in the end they succeeded – however, already during pregnancy, the fetus found multiple developmental pathologies. Ruth said that she would accept the baby no matter what, but the boy died just an hour after birth.

When the woman recovered from the loss, new unsuccessful attempts were made to become parents. One day, Matthew told Lacy that they were considering adopting a boy from an orphanage. The Deavers even drove to Boston to look at one African-American boy ... But then Ruth, who had already lost hope, suddenly became pregnant again. She gave birth to a son, this time alive and healthy. He got the name Henry Matthew Deaver.

The pastor himself baptized him, not knowing that he was holding his future murderer in his arms.

Lacy barely remembered Henry in his early childhood, although he had seen him many times – the boy had practically grown before his eyes. For Dale, he was just a neighborhood boy, one of the Castle Rock kids, no better and no worse than the others.

This continued until January of that year, when Matthew and his son went into the forest and did not return.

Pastor was found lying on the ice of Castle Lake near the cliff, bones broken. He died three days later, never regaining consciousness. His twelve-year-old son disappeared and went missing for another eleven days, until Sheriff Pangborn found him in almost the same place where his father had been discovered a week and a half ago. The boy returned home safe and sound. There were no signs of frostbite on his body, nor signs of any violence. He did not remember where he was and what happened to him.

Of course, Pangborn conducted an investigation ... that, however, did not clarify much. Despite the fact that all the suspects were eventually released, the official version of what happened was that the boy spent all these eleven cold winter days in the basement of one of the locals, most likely a pervert who, presumably, attacked the pastor in the forest to kidnap his son.

This is the story that Castle Rock residents knew. But they did not really believe it. Little Henry grew weird, he was not particularly loved before, and after the death of his father, he turned into a real outcast. Rumors quickly spread among the townspeople that it was the boy who sent his father to better world, and that he hid for about eleven days to avert suspicions from himself. By the time this all happened, almost everyone in Castle Rock already knew that Alan Pangborn and Ruth Deaver were lovers, and that the sheriff was very interested in preventing her son from going to the juvie.

Pangborn had lost the trust of the townspeople – at least for a while. Lacey believed that the sheriff was lucky: he was not removed from his post for the arrest of innocents (unlike everyone else, Dale knew for sure that they were innocent, because he knew exactly who killed the pastor). However, the residents of Castle Rock understood that Pangborn was an excellent cop, the sheriff was loved and appreciated by his past merits. So, he was forgiven and continued to work as if nothing had happened.

“Alan is a good man, but he shouldn’t get involved with Ruth Deaver,” was what the town had been gossiping for years to come.

Lacy fully agreed with that. Ruth ruined the lives of both men who had the misfortune to love her.

That day, when he and Pangborn decided the fate of Henry, Dale found out that the kid was not the son of a pastor. When the boy disappeared, Ruth admitted to Alan that Henry was conceived from him. Having checked the dates of their secret meetings, the sheriff realized that this could well be true. To be honest, he really wanted to believe it – few years before that, his legal wife and little son had died in a car accident. Remaining a childless widower, Pangborn suddenly found out that he has another son.

Dale could easily imagine how Alan felt. What a delight, almost euphoria, was caused by the statement of Ruth, this lying deceitful bitch! However, about Henry, she did not lie – DNA examination made later confirmed Pangborn's fatherhood. Nevertheless, Ruth remained a lying bitch: she slipped the pastor a strange child, and this child killed him.

The child of sin has committed even greater sin.

Lacy, if he had known about this under other circumstances, still would not have intervened. Deaver's family drama did not concern him. However, to his misfortune, he witnessed what happened in the forest.

That day, Dale went out hunting in the afternoon. Tracking the deer, he reached Castle Lake. Lurking behind the trees, Lacy already saw his prey – a large male. The warden prepared to pull the trigger when a boy dressed in a yellow parka ran out into the clearing, right between Lacy and his target.

Of course, the appearance of the child frightened the deer – it shuddered and immediately disappeared, jumping over the bush with one jump. With a sigh of disappointment, Dale lowered his gun. Apparently, the culprit of his failure did not notice either the prey or the hunter. Young Henry Deaver (Lacy now recognized him) moved quickly towards the lake, now and then bogging down in deep snow. Leaning out of his hiding place, Dale wanted to call the boy, but he bit his tongue in time when he realized how close he had come to the cliff. Henry froze at the very edge, looking down onto a frozen lake. Knowing this place well, Lacy was seriously afraid that the boy might stumble and fall at any moment.

Dale thought hard how to call Henry in such a way that he would not be scared or make sudden movements that could cost him his life. In the end, Lacy decided to stalk closer to catch the boy, if he suddenly begins to fall. But did not have time to do this.

\- Henry! Where are you, kid?

That was the voice of the pastor. Both Dale and the boy startled. Henry froze and turned to his father's voice. Lacy, already perplexed by the reason that prompted Deavers in the early morning and on such a cold day to go to the forest (the pastor was not fond of hunting or fishing), was even more surprised to see the fright on the boy's face.

\- Henry, come to me! I won't hurt you!

But Henry not only did not respond to his father’s call, but also did something even stranger. Backing away, he began to slowly move away from the cliff. Lacy did not immediately realize that the boy was trying to step on his tracks.

\- Henry!

The pastor's voice came closer and closer. But the little rogue, walking back in his tracks, managed to dive into the bushes and lay down in the snow a few seconds before his father appeared on the clearing. Lacy, still unnoticed by anyone, remained behind a tree trunk. With every minute, he liked less what was happening. He became an accidental witness to some kind of intra-family conflict, the essence of which he did not capture. Dale believed that he knew the pastor well enough – such a person was not capable of cruelty to a child. On the other hand, in the last year in the Deaver’s family, something was clearly happening, something bad. It seems that the relationship between Ruth and Matthew finally went wrong, and even the pastor was tormented by headaches and tinnitus. Matthew himself told Lacy about it, and his wife once said that the pastor was seriously ill. When Dale tried to find out the details, Ruth immediately shut herself in.

On the other hand, Henry was also once taken to doctors – he did not speak for a long time, and doctors could not choose between hyperactivity and mild autism. Therefore, the boy could sometimes behave strangely. True, this happened less and less every year.

Lacy caught the eye that the pastor is very lightly dressed. While his son was in a parka and a beanie, Matthew was without a hat and in an open coat. He looked as if he did not feel the cold.

“Henry, stop hiding already, little shit!” Muttered the pastor irritably, and Lacy understood how angry he was. Therefore, Dale, who was about to go out and tell about the boy, hesitated, wondering what to do.

Meanwhile, Diver Sr. saw footprints leading to the edge of the cliff. His face twisted in horror, and he rushed to where his child seemed to disappear ... Slowing down, he froze at the very edge, looking down – just like Henry a few minutes ago.

At that very moment, Henry jumped out from behind the trees and with a force pushed his father in the back, using the whole weight of his puny body, like a ram, to push the pastor onto the ice of the lake. From his own efforts, the boy fell to all fours, and his father screamed down, disappearing from Lacy's sight. A moment later there was a thud and a crunch ... and silence fell again.

Dale did not immediately recover from what he saw. He happened to see the consequences of crimes many times, but never the crime itself. Even when his younger brother committed suicide by jumping from the roof of the school during a game, Lacy did not see the moment of his death, although he was on the playing field.

Thinking of his brother, Dale forced himself to act. He ran to the cliff and looked down, he saw the pastor lying motionless on the ice – just like his brother near the school door.

Henry rose from his knees. Ceasing to look at his father, he indifferently looked at Lacy, as if the appearance of the warden did not surprise him at all.

\- Why? - exclaimed Dale. - Why did you do this?

He grabbed the boy and shook him properly. Henry made no sound. His eyes did not express any feelings. This was the first time Lacy noticed that they were of different colors – left one brown and right one blue.

_Sign of the Devil._

“I have to call 911,” muttered Dale. - Stay where you are!

He had to let Henry down to search for his cellphone in his pockets. When he finally found it and dialed the rescue service phone, it turned out that there was no signal near Castle Lake. Lacy decided to run back to the car – there was a signal where he parked: Martha called him before dawn. Of course, he wanted to take the kid with him, but he had already disappeared. When Dale caught on, he only saw the yellow parka flicker behind the trees.

Lacy called for him to return – of course, without any result.

“He can’t go far,” Dale decided. “I'll be back for him later.”

He did not want to leave the boy alone in the forest, but the pastor could still be alive: Lacy heard weak moans coming from below. Therefore, he tried to get to the car as quickly as possible and dialed “911” again. After he called the rescuers and explained to them where the injured was, he immediately called Pangborn. However, even before he discussed everything with the sheriff, even then, in his first call, he said: “I found a man on the ice of Castle Lake. It seems he fell from a cliff" instead of saying:" I saw a teenager push a man on the ice. "

Then Dale went in search of Henry. An experienced hunter and a good ranger, Lacy quickly found him. The boy, who, as Dale later found out, spent almost the whole night in the forest, was already exhausted and began to freeze. However, he offered decent resistance. The kid burst out, biting and scratching. Warden could not calm him down. In the end, Lacy lost his nerve. He grabbed the boy, tied him up and carried to the car, throwing him over his shoulder like a carcass of a wild boar, and then put him in the trunk and covered with a blanket so that he would not freeze.

Pangborn rushed along. Dale called him the second time he caught Henry, and the sheriff, although he was supposed to go to the crime scene, first drove up to the warden's car, which was standing at the edge of the forest.

“I'm afraid you will have to arrest him,” said Lacy, opening the trunk and showing the boy: he was lying silently, sniffling angrily and looking sneakily with his heterocromic eyes.

“I can't! This morning I found out that he is my son.”

Alan looked like he was about to cry from powerlessness. Pulling himself together, he told Dale everything he had heard from Ruth, and Lacy, in turn, again described in detail what had happened near the lake.

“Can you hide him?” For a week, maybe two? Until everything settles down.”

“Do you even understand what you are asking me?” Become an accomplice in a crime!

Dale was not going to agree, but Alan begged him:

“Henry has already reached the age of criminal responsibility under state law.” If we tell everything as it was, there is practically no chance that he will be acquitted. Look at him, Dale! He is not for prison! He will die there!”

Lacy understood. How could he not know: imprisonment does not correct criminals, it cripples lives. He observed this countless times in his workplace. A juvie is probably no better than Shawshank, if not worse. If staying there doesn’t kill Henry, it will probably ruin his mental health.

Alan did not want to lose his barely acquired and the only remaining son.

Realizing this, Lacy reluctantly agreed. He and Pangborn drew up the plan and put it into action. After Alan closed the boot lid over the protesting Henry, Dale drove the boy to his cabin, where the boy was locked up for the next eleven days. On the twelfth day, Lacy released Henry on the ice of Castle Lake and told him to go forward. Alan was already waiting for him on the opposite bank.

Those eleven days were not easy for Lacy. The boy did not want to cooperate, despite the fact that Dale explained everything in detail to him. Henry tried to escape on the first day, which made Lacy shut him down in the basement. At the same time, the head of the prison had to take care of his young captive: Henry received a slight frostbite in the forest, so Dale needed to urgently flood the fireplace, find the boy dry clothes and heat the water, as well as cook. When he was done with all these things, it was already evening. Fed up and warmed up, Henry lay down to sleep on the mattress in the basement, without even thinking to thank Lacy. The warden hurried to Martha, his blind wife, who was alone at home for the whole day (and the next few) due to the fault of the sheriff’s bastard.

Matthew Deaver was still alive when rescuers picked him up. The pastor was taken to the hospital by helicopter, where he was placed in the intensive care unit. The condition of the injured soon stabilized, as Alan informed Lacy. In his turn, the warden had told the boy, thinking that he would be pleased with this news – Dale hoped that Henry was at least a little worried about his father and regretted his act.

However, he was mistaken. That day, the boy felt sick – stress and wandering through the winter forest still did not pass without a trace for him. Now and then, shaken by coughing fits, he lay on the mattress. Dale was sitting next to him.

\- Let him die!

The boy’s voice was hoarse; he could only speak in a whisper, so the warden could not immediately make out his words.

\- What? - Dale thought he had misheard.

“Let him die,” Henry repeated. “I want so.”

Lacy shook his head and looked sternly at him.

“He is your father!”

\- Not real father! - objected Henry.

\- And so what? He raised you for twelve years. Has he ever done you anything bad?

\- He wanted ... - Then the boy was shaken by another coughing fit.

Dale asked the same question again when the kid stopped coughing. However, Henry already lost the desire to respond.

“If he dies, you will become a murderer,” said Lacy. “You know what I'll do then? I am the head of the Shawshank prison. There is a dungeon no one knows about. I will put you in the trunk again, take you to jail and put you in a cage deep underground. You will spend there exactly as many years as adult usually gets for murder.”

“But I am a child!” Henry squealed in fright. “You can't ...”

“Now you are in my control, so I can do anything I want with you,” Lacy solemnly said. “Matthew Deaver is a good friend of mine. The sheriff will not save you. Pray that Matthew will get well soon! Pray, otherwise you will be in trouble!

The boy looked at him with undisguised rage, then turned to the wall and did not utter another word.

_It looks like Ruth gave birth to real sociopath._

”Well then,” Dale thought. “You'll regret it, little rat!”

He was very angry with Henry, but he did not intend to harm him. He just wanted to scare the kid, since he is not able to feel remorse and guilt.

The next day, the whole Castle Rock was shocked by the news of the sudden death of the pastor. He died in the hospital shortly after his wife visited him. Ruth cried. Alan was silent and depressed. Lacy whispered to him that their agreement was still valid – Pangborn only silently squeezed his hand.

In the evening, Dale came back to the cabin and went down to the basement, brought Henry food and medicine. Putting the tray in front of the boy, Lacy said:

\- He is dead. Matthew Diver, your father. As you wanted.

Henry stared at him with horrified eyes. Dale turned away from him, walked the steps and locked the door. He no longer spoke with the boy until the day he released him.  
In eleven days, Henry had already recovered a bit from his illness, and Lacey was fed up with his role as a warden. He thought that the worst was over – then he really hoped for it.

“Are you taking me to the Shawshank?” - asked the kid when they were in a car.

He looked devastated. Dale was ashamed of the fact that he had told the child all kinds of nonsense, but he did not give in to the sight.

“Call me Mr. Lacy.”

“Are you taking me to jail, Mr. Lacy?” - The boy obediently repeated.

\- Not. You will return home.

Surprisingly, now that he was telling the truth, the kid did not believe him. About half an hour later, Lacy turned off the engine, stopping the car near the lake, and the boy reluctantly got out of the car, squinting at the daylight, from which his eyes managed to wean.

Holding Henry tightly by the hand, Dale brought him to the shore and indicated where to go. The boy listened to him with an indifferent look. Lacy was not sure that his words reached him.

“Listen,” he said, putting his hands on Henry's shoulders and bending over him. “I'm really letting you go. Today you will be at home, will see your mother... Your father (I mean the pastor) has been buried. Soon everyone will forget how he died. Perhaps you will begin to forget it too. However, while you are in Castle Rock, I am watching you. If you do anything else like that ... or try to do it, I will find out. Then I'll come and take you to the Shawshank – now for real. Understood?

“Yes, Mr. Lacy,” the boy whispered.

Tears flashed in his eyes, both brown and blue.

\- And now, go. Go, Kid!


End file.
